Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-16
HUNDREDS OF LOVELY WOMEN.
Nightly Spectacle of the SEASON.
AT Saratoga.

big hotels here, says Saratoga letter
to the New York Sun. In the great
gardens of the hotels the view is like
4 vista in fairyland, while on the short
block of Broadway, where fifteen
hundred women, robed like Queens
and Ducnesses at court, sweep past
in two opposing professions, the spec
tacle is like a dream of Eden as it
might have been. This pageant OF
beauty lasts about two hours-from
in the evening, when the bands take
their places on the verandas of the
United States and the Grand Union,
until 10, when the music ceases.
At the United States you see a case
less parade of supurb women, each
robed as effectively as money and taste
can order, moving proudly from enc
to end of the broad veranda. Every
sort of women, but with only one sor,
of purse, and one thought for the mo-
ment. The dreamy music fills the ar
the brilliant light bathe the figures
the green background of foliage ano
sward, leading vaguely to shadow
land beyond the lights, shuts in the
view. On and on and on the wo
men come, some young and merry
some stately and demure, some mid
dle-aged, but regal and unharmed by
wears. On they sweep, some gorgeous
of raiment as fair maskers in Flor
ence, some ablaze with diamonds,
some weighted and caparisoned with
pearls, some clad as simple yet as fair
as Marguerite or Priscilla, som bare
pecked and bare-armed, with flesh
like the blush of a pale rose, and with
tall forms and frames grandly propor-
toned. Beauty, grace, pride and
polish are in that train, costumed with
silks and satins, web-like lace, gold
and gems, glittering steel, chinklng
beads, and clouds of gossamer stuffs
from every zone.
Over in the Grand Union the fash
ion is for all to rest, and there you
see these women, again in rows OF
chairs so that the regiments of loveli-
ness that reach down two city blocks
in one direction face the battalion OF
beauty ranked along the remaining
two blocks. A passage through the
center of this exquisite array affords
the men a chance to walk be-
tween the broken lines and feast
their eyes upon the scene. Here
every woman is posed to produce
the best effect she can. Every out
line is studied, the poise of each we'll
coiffured head, the arch of each
shapely neck, the position OF each arm
and hand, the very curves of each
ones drapery are studied and studied
with view to looking artless and nat
ural, and therefore most admirably.
Here, again. the sensuous music
weighs the air, the great banks of TO-
liage and carpets of lawn inclose the
light, and fountains, colored by
powerful lights, like crystal rain
bows tremble under the leaves. Here,
again, the diamonds flash their bril-
liant sparks from head to head and
polished neck to girdled fingers. Here,
also, the wealth of India, China, and
the world at large is heaped and hung
and fitted on the pretty, the statuesque,
the merry, and the proud in silks and
laces, gems and precious metals, beads
and gauze, and all the wonder-work
of fashion. ..
The radiant eyes of these petted
daughters of good fortune tell hun
dred tales and betray hundred
secrets. This woman is flirting, very
discreetly, with yonder man. That
other lady is listening to earnest
words of love from the youth by her
side. That girl is darting jealous
glances at a man and woman cooling
in shaded corner. Yonder matron
is beaming with satisfaction as she
sees the splendid beauty of her
daughter sweeping by on gallant's
arm. The eyes Of this wife tell of her
Joy over her husbands coming after a
long week of loneliness among ten
thousand strangers. Those deep orbs
of the dark Jewess who sits with one
hand on younger sisters knee be-
trays the deep love her soul feels for
the music to all but which she is OBJ
livious. And so it runs, love, pas
sion, jealousy, pride, vanity, content
ment, mischief-these are the head
ings of the chapters in this enhancing
tale of sparkling eyes.
And all this is only half the scene,
and possibly not the best half, in this
dreamland of petted women. The
great parlors, on whose floors you
could mark out the ground plans OF
some of the hotels of New York, are
filed with ladies-filled as you often
zee a slender vase with flowers. so full
that the blossoms project and hang
beyond the edge ON all sides. Soft
pillowed chairs and tete-a-tetes and
lounges, set here and there without
arrangement, bear the burden OF
these bellies and DANES, seated as
they ought to be when photographed,
but never are. Under their feet is the
soft and gorgeous carpet, at their sides
the broad and towering mirrors, over
head the frescoing and enormous clus-
ters of hanging pyramids OF dazzling
globes OF crystal. Here every detail
of the composition of fashion and
beauty is betrayed by the light-the
very texture of the complexion, the
veining of the bare, rounded arms and
unclad necks, the chasingof the brace
let's, the filagree OF the necklaces, the
tell-tale hue of the gems, the size
and shape OF the footwear, and even
the hosiery, the true quality OF the
lace and silks, and all the rest. They
must be very genuine in their grand
eur of raiment and loveliness of per-
son to stand the test of the searching
light of those parlors. And there,
again, the music floats on the air, and
there is love-making, vanity, simple
beauty, elaborate artifice, and all the
rest.
Those who do not understand the
freaks of fashion would he surprised
70 laorp that before anvthino lilo d
fair estimate can be made of the vast
treasure thus exhibited it would be
necessary to judge of the cost OF the
fans and parasols these ladies carry
One sees pretty fans and parasols il
the ladies' shopping store marked
with figures ranging from 81 t.
$25, but the fans that fiutter her
and the parasols that abov
the heads OF theseA fashionabl
are no such trifies as those. Their